How To Suck At Promoting Your Clothing Brand

Written by Jian DeLeon (@jiandeleon)

If you run a successful style site (cough, cough) or a popular menswear blog, you have a lot of product coming at you everyday. Emails, packages, phone calls—it never ends. In addition to covering the type of brands you like, it's also important to discover new ones, and everyone is always on the hunt for the next big thing. So brand promotion can be a good thing.

For small brands and PR agencies, connecting with editors and bloggers is paramount to getting the word out about your product. Because that is the connection directly to people who might buy stuff.

They say that any press is good press, right? Not so fast. There are definitely ways that trying to get your brand noticed can go horribly wrong. Be wary, because we figured out How To Suck At Promoting Your Clothing Brand.

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Please, please don't misspell the names of the people you're e-mailing. Often, that's an instant disqualification. Typos occur, but spellcheck can do wonders. Be sure to read every e-mail before you send it. You're not getting anyone's attention with emoticons and cute ways of spelling words wrong.

Also, even if you use a general template and personalize it to each person you send it to, that's ten times better than one huge PR blast. It can be annoying to read e-mails about cool stuff when you know hundreds of other people got the same email.

We're not all writers, but that doesn't mean we all don't have a unique voice. Avoid using tired phrases like "must-have" or "unique" or "edgy" to describe a product.

Just find an angle that works, whether it's being as simple as possible: "these shirts are made of cotton and they tell you that Santa is not real," or as hyperbolic as a sports writer: "I wore this while dolphin watching and I swear, a shark jumped out of the water just to give me a high-five!" Bottom line: if your pitch isn't short, it better not be boring.

You send editors and bloggers e-mails that say things like "I love the site! I notice you posted about awesome T-shirts. Listen, I have some really awesome T-shirts you should check out!" And you know what? It kind of makes you sound like a scumbag. Just be real, succinct, and come up with a good, simple pitch. It helps to actually read the site or blog you're hitting up.

Instead, don't send e-mails, write messages. Instead of saying you're a big fan of something, mention a specific article or post you really liked, and build an organic, lasting relationship with these people, rather than just hope for a random post.

So two of your favorite bloggers are chopping it up on twitter, arguing over whether or not Kanye West really had breakfast at Gucci. What a perfect time to interject and tell both of them about your brand right? Even better, pretend like you have something to add by saying something like: "LOL I love that lyric! BTW, check out my tees on my etsy!"

No. Don't do that. You wanna get in with these guys? Contribute to the conversation, then talk about how you happen to have a brand and you'd appreciate it if they check it out.

Did you really research the market thoroughly? Are you sure you're the only brand that offers asymmetrical zip leather jackets with seventeen random pockets? Oh, what's that, you guys invented the fitted cap? Riiiight.

Self-awareness is key in promoting a brand, and you don't want to sound like you're completely unaware of what's out there. Nothing is cornier than a brand that touts itself as the first this, or being inspired by a lack of that, when people in the industry can name off a laundry list of people doing the same thing. Read up and understand what's currently going on in the industry and you'll have a much more fruitful conversation with the people in it.

Say you're a fan of a writer or blogger and you follow them on Twitter. Cool, that's normal. You might even add them on LinkedIn... which is weird because who uses that?!, but still fine, and then you might even go the extra mile and add them on Facebook without actually having met them. That's when things get murky.

If you're a PR person or someone who just wants them to be aware of what you do, there's a thin line between what's appropriate and inappopriate on social media. Asking for solid advice or building on a professional is one thing, but do not do dumb things like tagging this person in every single picture of your product, or liking every Instagram pic they post of their family. That's abuse, both of their trust and social media in general. Be smarter than that.

While it can be cool to have someone famous rocking your gear, it's ten times better if they buy the product themselves (they have the money) than paying them to rock your product. Take the advice of Rob Garcia from up-and-coming brand En Noir: "As far as celebrities go… if Kanye's paying for this shit, everybody's paying for the shit." Be real, if you deserve it, the hype will follow.

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If you act like you're the best brand ever, you're probably not. At the end of the day, if you're sour that no one is writing about your shit, it may be because your product or collection just isn't very good.

Does that mean you should give up? Of course not. Just eat a slice of humble pie and seek help from the community at large. We want new people to discover good brands as much as the next person, and if that designer or label blows up, it's a great feeling knowing you supported them from the start.